billet
verb/ˈbɪlɪt/
/ˈbɪlɪt/
[transitive, usually passive]Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they billet | /ˈbɪlɪt/ /ˈbɪlɪt/ |
| he / she / it billets | /ˈbɪlɪts/ /ˈbɪlɪts/ |
| past simple billeted | /ˈbɪlɪtɪd/ /ˈbɪlɪtɪd/ |
| past participle billeted | /ˈbɪlɪtɪd/ /ˈbɪlɪtɪd/ |
| -ing form billeting | /ˈbɪlɪtɪŋ/ /ˈbɪlɪtɪŋ/ |
- + adv./prep. to send soldiers to live somewhere for a period of time, especially in private houses during a war
- The troops were billeted in the town with local families.
Word Originlate Middle English (originally denoting a short written document): from Anglo-Norman French billette, diminutive of bille, probably based on medieval Latin bulla ‘seal, sealed document’. The verb is recorded in the late 16th cent., and the noun sense, ‘a written order requiring a householder to lodge the bearer, usually a soldier’, from the mid 17th cent.; hence the current meaning.
Check pronunciation:
billet